8/26/98

Softball: Loved by all, from Guangzhou to Fresno

Dear People,

I am now back in the Bay Area, and am happy to resume my role as your aerobic conscience. You undoubtedly need it, given that this Saturday will mark five weeks since any of you have played a rigorous and delicious game of softball. In brief, you need only look at the conspicuously thickened marbling of your lower calves to see the harsh realities of which I speak. As a group, you are now several weeks older, and more corpulent than ever before, and unlike me, your mastery of Cantonese tones remains nothing short of shameful. It is time to break this cycle of despair.

The fact is that I personally spoke to tens of thousands of everyday Chinese people, all of whom told me that in spite of their differences over human rights, economic reform, government corruption, Taiwan, Tibet, missile sales to Syria and the significance of executive semen stains on Sino-American relations, what holds their nation together is a simple and enduring love for the gentle game of softball. I think you see my point. Therefore, there will be a game this Saturday, August 29th, at 5PM, on the luxuriant scandal-free grasses of Codorneices field, IF I get enough commits by this Friday noon. Make that commit. Do it for softball itself, the understated glue of geopolitical cohesion....Raymond

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